


What the Lilies See

by Brain_Flower



Category: Adam Lambert (Musician), Tommy Ratliff (Musician)
Genre: Fire, Flowers, Ghosts, Love, M/M, Roses, happy endings, lilies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-27
Updated: 2012-10-27
Packaged: 2017-11-17 04:08:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/547453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brain_Flower/pseuds/Brain_Flower
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They all look sad even the baby who’s clothes are black with soot and who has hair just as singed as Abigail’s. They all stay until midnight when Master turns off all the lights and buries himself under his blankets. Abigail and Jackson say goodnight to the Lilies and then they fade disappearing as quickly as they came. Dissolving with the hours of the day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What the Lilies See

**Author's Note:**

> Remodeled from last year’s version I posted half of in a journal. Also love is bullshit and I hate it.

-What the Lilies See-

At midnight when the TV has begun to flicker with infomercials and there is a half empty cup of chamomile tea sitting on the coffee table, the lilies on the table watch Abigail stretch and wake up, only to realize that Master is still not asleep yet. 

“Well this won’t do.” Abigail whispers to the lilies, “How am I to care for you when your master can’t even care for himself.” The burned girl moves around the room-goes to the back and then slides over to the blonde on the couch. “Time for the insomnia to give you a break,” She whispers tugging the master to bed. 

She leaves the bedroom leaving the windows open a crack, enough for a light breeze to cool the apartment and the curtains to still flow translucent and ghostly. “You can’t blame him for not taking care of you.” Abigail tells the lilies quietly, “I know that seems harsh but if he can’t even get to sleep on his own he can’t bother to change your water and clean your dead parts off of you.” 

It’s okay the lilies understand-they’re always the last thought on anyone’s mind, except Abigail who always fixes them up. 

“My baby’s name was Lily.” Abigail tells the flowers every night. They know this-but the burned girl helps them so they don’t mind hearing the story every day. “She was so beautiful…she had her father’s eyes…God knows she had my voice-but her father went off to war and I was stuck here trying to take care of her.” 

She gracefully moves to peer into the bedroom and the lilies know she’s watching her baby, “And a fire started in the building-there was no getting out…and there was no way I could ever convince myself to jump…” She trails off and anger is making the room grow cold, “God only knows why He’d let a mother and her first baby slowly burn to death but He did and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forgive Him.” They hear the baby’s screams as they do every night, and the master makes a noise in between a whimper and a moan but then settles. 

“What did I do lilies? What did her father do when he was informed that the flames slowly took the lives of his new born baby and wife of nine months?” The anger is fading to unhappiness, “He always had a plan for me if he was killed in war but we never had a plan for if I died. It didn’t even seem like an option-no one prepares to die…parents send their kids to bible camps to learn things they can’t comprehend themselves and one day your kid comes home saying they were saved and you aren’t even religious but all of a sudden you find yourself praying before you eat dinner and you ask the Lord to spare your soul if you die in your sleep, but there is no guide line to death when fire slowly suffocates you while you’re holding a little tiny life in your arms. I just automatically assume that I’m in hell!” 

It’s quiet for a minute the only sound is the howling of the wind. And then the dog stretches from his position on the master’s bed and his ears move listening for something…anything-Abigail’s movements, the master’s restless sleeping, the refrigerator making and dropping ice, the tick, tick, tick of the clock on the wall, the drip, drip, drip of the kitchen sink. 

Abigail and the lilies watch the German Sheppard leave his master’s side to trot into the living room-tags on his collar jingling together. “Hello Lucifer.” Abigail greets the large dog, “How are you this evening, love?” 

Lucifer follows her around the kitchen, tags clinking together, watching her fix up the lilies-change the water, trim off their dead parts. Abigail, the lilies, and Lucifer are all oblivious to the master getting up from the bed, but Abigail stops dead when a groggy blonde calls out, “Lucifer, settle down, all your noise isn’t helping me sleep.” 

All the activities resume once Lucifer is sitting down in the kitchen and the master has stumbled back to bed. “You know his name is Tommy, right?” Abigail mentions as she sits at the table the vase is on. “Lucifer told me one night, but also I look through the mail when it’s left out. Tommy Joe Ratliff-what a cute name.” She smiles, “He’s in love, don’t you know? I can feel it, the atmosphere is different.” 

The lilies listen. 

“It’s this guy.” She continues, “When I was born I don’t believe there were as many gay people as there are now…although I did have this one good friend who was questionable…and I always told people I never really made up my mind. Anyways that’s not the point, the point is that he’s in love and I’m sure if this man opens up his eyes then he’ll realize how nice your master is.” 

Silence…five minutes go by before Abigail shifts and grins a little evilly, “Although it’s not all gum drops and schizophrenia…you could share your perfect space with something else…” 

She says nothing for a while…lets the thoughts sink in, “Roses.” She whispers, “They look so beautiful-they romanticize the shitty love emotion, they’re a dark red color-usually TV commercials stick them in with really big guys with deep voices, and boxes of chocolate. But damn they hurt…got those poison love darts on the sides that stick you and yeah they hurt.” She laughs, “Oh dear, don’t worry if this mysterious man visits and notices you guys then maybe he’ll get more lilies or a less painful flower.” She shrugs, “Suns coming up-gotta fly.” She waggles translucent fingers and then fades out of sight to visit the baby and her husband. 

The lilies settle along with Lucifer-the master won’t be up for another few hours. 

-_\/\/_-Siren Jax-_\/\/_-

Abigail’s sitting at the table, chin propped in her hand and legs crossed, when the master brings the man home for the first time. She hums as she watches them, “He’s got good taste in men.” She comments casually, “We’ll see how it plays out.” 

Master picks up the vase and moves the lilies closer to Abigail. She smirks down at them, “If they have standards they won’t have sex until the third date.” 

Abigail and the flowers watch the two the whole time-drinking wine and eating take out at the kitchen table. They listen to everything said with Abigail repeating what she dubs as important, “Names Adam, twenty-four years old, making pretty decent money, definitely a top.” 

Lucifer gets off the couch to sit by her, “Animal and baby person,” she does that evil grin again, "Perfect.”

“He’s been acting weird lately.” Tommy nods towards Lucifer, “Getting up at night to run around the kitchen, always sits away from me instead of on top of me like he would normally do.” 

“Ghosts aren’t real, Lilies.” Abigail informs, “But demons are…beware children that you don’t get involved with the wrong crowd.” 

“I keep thinking maybe it’s haunted but people always shoot down that idea…they want life to be perfect. I mean a while ago…like decades…there was a fire in the building that killed many families the owner won’t tell me about this specific apartment because they’re afraid of losing service. Jesus I’d love to know-I’m sure it’s awful.” 

“If you only knew.” Abigail sighs, twirling her singed blonde hair, “You’d feel god-awful for not finding out sooner.” Lucifer leans into her touch, “We should have gotten a dog- I heard they’re great with children.” 

As the night goes on Abigail talks to the lilies more, informing them of important details and sighing when Adam finally gets up to leave, “I know this love-they’ll go on several dates, fall in love, have a fight, ignore each other not very well, apologize in sappy phrases, have hot make up sex, and live happily ever after.” 

Well it almost happens like that. Adam does come over quite a lot and Master goes over to his place many times too. It’s a month before the man even kisses Master-much to Abigail’s dismay. But one night Adam comes over with roses and Abigail’s mouth drops, “Oh dear” She whispers, “If it’s not done already I’ll trim the poison love darts off tonight.” The dark flowers are squeezed in next to the lilies and Abigail shakes her head, “Poor lilies.” 

Abigail howls later when after two glasses of wine Master and the man kiss and don’t stop. The lilies are not sure how this could be because as far as they remember the only things that don’t need oxygen anymore are Abigail and her family. 

The wondering stops when the room is suddenly dark and Abigail giggles plucking Master’s gray t-shirt off of them. “How unfortunate that Tommy doesn’t have a bedroom door…that’s what sucks about these open plans.” She glances at Lucifer, “Assuming after this they’ll call it a night, Lucifer stay with me…I’ll trim those roses poison darts.” 

-_\/\/_-Siren Jax-_\/\/_-

The roses are trimmed and Lucifer is in the bed at five when the mystery man gets out of bed, dresses, and gather’s his things. Abigail sits up watching closely when Adam leaves, “That twat!” She rages, “Roses! What is this ass doing?” 

But the roses turn up their petals and look away. Abigail fumes, snarls, and paces the room, hands wringing, thoughts falling from her mouth, “I’ll be back.” She finally decides, “I need to go see Lily and Jackson or I’ll make myself known to Tommy.”

She leaves and the lilies rest uncomfortably beside the roses. 

Abigail doesn’t return until Master wakes up at eight. She watches him stretch and look around for Adam, sighing quietly. “Oh Lilies,” She murmurs, “He’s going to be so heartbroken…Adam didn’t even leave a note, he just left.” 

Master checks the bathroom, the living room, and the kitchen before pulling out a chair beside Abigail. He watches the flowers for a minute before taking the evil roses out, allowing the lilies to breathe again. “Damn ugly roses, he didn’t even get the right flowers.” Master mutters. 

The day is quiet-Master mopes around the apartment and Abigail stays in the seat at the table watching Master sip coffee in the bay windows and read books and bake cookies and cupcakes. It’s a day full of thought and questions and asking why, and the roses? The roses are slowly drying out outside on the balcony. 

That day the lilies also see Jackson and Lily for the first time. Jackson braves himself to come stand behind Abigail one hand on her shoulder and he hands her the tiny burned baby. It’s obvious Jackson opted out not long after he found out the truth about his wife and daughter the cuts on his wrists and arms give him away quickly. 

They all look sad even the baby who’s clothes are black with soot and who has hair just as singed as Abigail’s. They all stay until midnight when Master turns off all the lights and buries himself under his blankets. Abigail and Jackson say goodnight to the Lilies and then they fade disappearing as quickly as they came. Dissolving with the hours of the day. 

A whole week goes by, Jackson and Abigail are there all day everyday sometimes with Lily sometimes without. Master keeps reading in the bay windows, keeps moping, keeps making things he doesn’t eat. Abigail mentions that he’s losing weight and that she’s worried. She keeps mentioning how much she hates this man-Adam- for treating Tommy so well and then just dropping him like he did. Like he made a mistake and Tommy meant nothing to him anymore. 

And as if on cue the doorbell rings and when Master opens it Adam is there. Abigail fumes, snarls, wrings her hands, paces the floor, muttering to herself. Jackson takes her hand, hugs her, and they turn to watch the two men with the lilies. 

Adam is holding flowers-not Roses this time but more Lilies and Master laughs in his face. It’s not a nice laugh like he does when his friends come over or he’s happy but a mean laugh-one that Abigail does when she pairs is with the evil smirk and those sharp teeth. “You make me sick.” Master barks, “You think you can date me, take me to bed, leave in the damn middle of the night, stay away for a week without calling or leaving a note, and then show up at my door a week later with flowers and an apology?” He yells, “Yeah just piss off, Bastard, I can think of better ways to waste my time.” He slams the door and Abigail howls, delighted. 

Master isn’t happy though, he curls up in the window and it isn’t long before he cries. He really does love Adam even though he got stood up and Abigail has the heart to see that. “I don’t believe in second chances because people never change but I always gave them.” She sighs. 

Adam knocks on the door again, calls out Tommy name and Master very brokenly yells at him to go away but Adam opens the door slowly anyways. He sits beside Tommy in the window after putting the flowers down on the counter and just waits. “How could you just up and leave me?” Master cries but he allows himself to be pulled into Adam’s lap. “How could you go and not say anything, not call for a week, not leave a note? And how could you show up today with flowers and think that I would fall into your arms and it would all be happily ever after again? How could you be such a bastard, and how can I still want you?” 

Abigail and Jackson watch carefully. 

“Because I was stupid.” The man says, “I left without realizing that I finally had something great in my life. I made a really douche bag move and I hurt you and you deserve someone so much better-I don’t expect you to love me anymore because what I did was really wrong. I should have said something before I left and I don’t have a reason or an excuse as to why I did it. I just did it.” He’s quiet for a minute, “I’ll leave now if you want me too. But keep the lilies.” 

“Take me to bed.” Tommy tells Adam, “And don’t leave me ever again.” 

Abigail winks down at the lilies and before her and Jackson and Lily leave she trims the new flowers and fits them in beside the old ones. The lilies don’t mind this time. “Take care of your Master while we’re gone.” The burned girl whispers as her and her husband walk away and dissolve into the sun. 

-_\/\/_-Siren Jax-_\/\/_-

“Seeing something outside that dank apartment.” Abigail smiles to the vase a year later. Lilies come and go but they all know Abigail and her singed hair, and beautiful soot covered child, and her husband standing faithful by her side in his uniform. 

She glances around the empty apartment minus the lilies on counter. “I suppose we’ll stay here.” She murmurs, “Keep our place and inform the other flowers that come into this place about your master and Lily and what happened decades ago.” She sighs, “But we’ll go with you out there wherever out there is. And we’ll visit all the time.” 

The lilies get put in the car up from with Master who is beside Adam-who is driving. And Abigail is in the back beside Jackson who is holding Lily. And Lucifer is pacing from the back to the very back and all the way up to the front where he licks at Tommy’s face or breathes in Adam’s ear. 

Nobody minds though because they’re going on an Adventure driving on back roads for a long time until Adam finally pulls up a long gravel drive way and stops in front of an old white house. “Good God it’s huge.” The lilies hear Abigail tell Jackson, “That’s my fucking dream house!” She directs that one towards the Lilies. 

Abigail and Tommy get out the blonde taking the vase with him. Abigail and Jackson watch from the back of the car as Adam wraps his arm around Tommy’s waist and begins telling him a story about the house. The lilies are held by the lip of the vase but they’re safe because Master has never hurt them before-he goes out of his way to not hurt them. 

Unpacking lasts all day but the lilies get their spot on the kitchen table as soon as possible. Abigail and Jackson smile and she says, “I really adore this house and I wish I could stay but we’ll keep our place and continue to inform residents of the fire. We’ll visit often and as I’ve sworn before if a fire was ever to occur in this house Jackson, Lily, and I would all be back to make sure that you were safe. Stay well lilies and make sure your master is kept happy at all times.” 

People come and go and so do flowers and even though Abigail has stated before that love is bullshit, some of it isn’t. And as long as the burned girl and her family still visit almost every day and as long as Adam keeps Master happy then love will go on and maybe for a little while all the bad things like fires and how the lilies actually symbolize death can go away, and the world can just be quiet and peaceful and happy. 

That’s all the lilies need to see.

**Author's Note:**

> I make weird noises when I don’t know how to end things. Melody helped me form that last sentence because I felt that leaving it at that giant paragraph didn’t really have the best ending. So! That was the remodeled version of what the lilies see that I put up in a journal. Any mistakes are mine; I’m not going back to correct tonight because I have ACT’s tomorrow and a wedding so I’m going to bed! Reviews appreciated-Siren jax


End file.
